Some aircraft (e.g., commercial airliners) are assembled by attaching various components of the aircraft together. For example, a fuselage of a commercial airliner is typically composed of two or more cylindrical sections that are inserted into one another via male-to-female connections. That is, a male end of a first section of the fuselage can be inserted into a female end of a second section of the fuselage. A male end of the second section of the fuselage can be inserted into a female end of a third section the fuselage, and so on. Difficulties can arise when a male end doesn't make a snug fit with a corresponding female end of another section.
These difficulties can be mitigated by manufacturing a cylindrical shim that fits radially between the male and female ends to fill the radial space between the male and female ends. For such a shim to be effective in improving the fit between sections, it generally should be manufactured to match the space between the male and female ends with very high precision. Known methods for measuring the radial gap between corresponding male and female ends of fuselage sections are generally very slow or too imprecise to be effective. Thus, a need exists for systems and methods that better facilitate high-precision shim production for mating female and male ends of aircraft components.